Shane's Amusement Attic

[astroworldfan1]

Oh wow, these are really nice! See what you can get when you save and preserve things like this! Great find!

[robbalvey]

Those old school Knott's brochures really make me sad.

 

I totally remember the "Minutes away - worlds apart" campaign!

 

--Robb

[robbalvey]

BTW Shane - GREAT THREAD!

 

This is exactly the kind of thing I like to see people post in the off season when most of the parks are closed. It's interesting and it gives us all something to talk about. Keep it up!

 

I've put it on the front page as an incentive you get you to scan in even more!

 

--Robb

[SharkTums]

Very interesting stuff, thanks Shane!

 

It seems like Knotts and Mariotts used the same ad company!

[Team Thriller]

Awesome! The parks looked so fun and magical back then. Now it's all about 'We have better than they do...etc"

 

Thanks for sharing!

[IwantRevenge]

Very cool stuff man

 

I love nostalgic things.

[nesdude]

Very nice, I always love seeing old brochures and ads to see what it was like back in the day.

 

When we were cleaning out our grandparents house over the summer, I found a Magic Kingdom map from either the 70's or the 80's. I put it someplace safe, and for the life of me I can't find it. If I ever come across it, I'll be sure to scan it in here.

 

-nesdude

[nursemelis374]

So fun to see these old ads. It really does make me miss the old Knott's. Its hard to believe that my family had a hard time each year trying to decide between Knott's and Disneyland for our annual trip. Going on Revolution and then Montezuma's Revenge were rights of roller coaster passge in my family!

 

Thanks for taking the time to post these!!!

[knottslover77]

Wow, Just looking at old knott's makes me want to cry.

 

 

--Jay

[dandaman]

Gotta love how KBF really upsells its product by touting itself as the "second-greatest SoCal attraction, next to Disneyland".

 

Dan "More awesome truth in advertising" Smith

[sfmmrules!]

I love the old ads. Nice post. Oh the good ol Tidal Wave! - MEMORIES!!!

[montezooma]

I remember going to Universal back in the 70's there wasn't much to it, basically the tour and a cheesy western show. Of course there was the collapsing bridge, parting of the red sea and the flash flood.

 

Oh and Frankenstein used to roam the grounds scaring the crap out of little kids, myself included.

Airport 77??? WTF?

[montezooma]

Sea World didn't have any rides at the time, but it is still fun to see the way it was.

 

I grew up in San Diego and I used to write letters to Sea World telling them they should build a roller coaster (what a geek) but hey maybe they listened to me, it just took awhile to get the coastal commission to approve it.

I still don't understand why the Sea World sky tower is still an additional upcharge attraction???? Pay to ride the tower but Atlantis is free, what is the reasoning???

Sea World was partial owners of Magic Mountain at the time and the success of Captain Kids world must have been the influence of Wizzard's World at Magic Mountain

[sfmmrules!]

Any more old ads? Love em!

[montezooma]

I am saving the best for last....Magic Mountain, the way it was and should've been...

 

But before those ads here are a few random others.

Obviously Elitch Gardens didn't have the advertising budget that the others did, but hell that was a great park!!!! And in my opinion one of the best named coasters ever. "Mister Twister"

I miss the old parachute towers

Six Flags Atlanta the year before the addition of Mind Bender, "The world's only triple looping roller coaster" or so it was advertised that way the year it opened. "The Land of Screams & Dreams" what a great tag line.

[ad'amico2008]

At that time and Huss and Arrow had merged, but soon became seperate companies again. Arrow-Huss nameplates can be found on several early 80s Arrows I believe, such as Darien Lake's Viper.

 

That's why this coaster isn't painful like many of the other Arrow multi-loopers.

[DRACHEN_FIRE_FAN-BOY]

WOW!

 

I wish I could find cool stuff like that!

 

just wow, that was great!

 

thanks montezooma!

 

... just awesome!

[wierdo135]

*sigh*

 

don't get me wrong I love how parks are today,

 

but back then, when parks first opened...

 

did you notice how they said disneyland is a great place...

 

now its all who has the biggest loop who has the biggest drop

 

rides were really great back then...

[brandon]

Its funny how Disneyland is the only park to stay a lot like it was in the 70's in the sense of adding many thrill rides and taking away everything else.

[montezooma]

Here are the Magic Mountain ads. These were the years that introduced the world to the Great American Revolution and Colossus. The Revolution is the ride that made me fall in love with anything and everything that was coasters!

 

I was only 11 years old when the Revolution opened. Two years later the park ran an essay contest called "why I want to be King of Magic Mountain" It was for kids 12 and under and the winner could invite 20 of his friends and was actually treated as the king of Magic Mountain for one day. Unfortunately I was thirteen at the time, but I wrote an essay and entered it under my younger brothers name. Well I, or he, actually won the contest. I got to be part of the group but I had to sit back and watch as my brother was treated as the King of Magic Mountain.

 

Enjoy what used to be LA's Giant Superpark.

Well this is the last one, hope you enjoyed my trip down memory lane.

I think this is when it all started to go wrong. Well actually Six Flags when they first came in did a nice job with the park.

This is one of my favorite ads, I love how they had characters for different experiences at the park. The park was really well rounded at this time.

Colossus makes its debut. The original version of the ride featured some great negative g's

Can you believe they actually used to feature a super round-up flat ride in their advertising? Good Times!!!!

The three coasters at the park were the "Great American Revolution" (later renamed Revolucion by six flags, ugh) Gold Rusher and the Mountain Express

[deasondodger]

Wow great memories thanks for that. I was 6 yrs old and my grandpa bribed me with 5 dollars and an ice cream to ride the corkscrew. i really miss the old Knotts. We use to always get nervous riding the train and the stagecoach because of the robbers, and always rode the log ride first no mater when we went. My favorite rides were the soap box racers, greased lightning, xk1, and the tumblers. Its a shame that all 4 of them are all gone now.

 

By the way anybody notice the free parking at sea world

[lapseofreason]

Wow, thanks for the Magic Mountain ads, they're really interesting.... it's great to see how much effort was put into promoting the park. I love seeing how MM was in the past. Anyone have any more photos?

[TheRealTinkerbell]

Wow, that first ad for Magic Mountain was seriously super cool. I mean, I understand that Magic Mountain is now a THRILL park, with all of its wild coasters, but I love how back in the day it was more about family, not coasters. Spend time with your family, Rides for the whole family, a great family park, and so on. No wonder nowadays the divorce rate is going up and kids are moving out sooner! I mean, don't get me wrong, I love roller coasters and amusement parks. But the trip to an amusement park is so much better with Family. If they had more advertisements like in the 70's, I'm pretty sure Magic Mountain wouldn't have to be making up stories that it would be shutting down!

 

 

 

 

And that's all I have to say about that

[Perilous Chris]

I remember when I was six, I used to collect theme park brochures. A few I actually still have. That picture of the Electric Rainbow, now Grinder Gearworks was in one. It was great seeing the early advertisements for Knotts, one even featuring the Fiesta Wheel.

[wood6291jp]

The Pics of SFOG from the seventies were sweet i could only imagine... the longest time ago i can think of is back before Batman and before the promenade was built, all while mind bender was still brown. The watersides where the scorcher is now is a welcome change tho.